Everton want Swansea maestro to increase Goodison goal threat

Toffees willing to spend big on Swansea’s goal-scoring midfielder

The high-profile pinching of Ronald Koeman from Southampton aside, Everton have been strangely dormant in the transfer market to date, but at long last the Goodison Park transfer-ometer is beginning to pick up vibrations.

Those tremors are the result of widespread media speculation suggesting the Toffees are about to offer Swansea £25m to prise Gylfi Sigurdsson away from the Liberty Stadium.

Sigurdsson, a protagonist for the heroic Iceland side that reached the quarter-finals of Euro 2016, scored 11 Premier League goals for the Welsh club in 2015/16 – placing him among the leading midfield scorers in England’s top flight last term.

It was a personal zenith in terms of Premier League goals in a single campaign for the dead-ball specialist, after previous returns of 7, 3, 5 and 7 in spells with Swansea and Tottenham.

Although he was perhaps undervalued across a two-year stint at White Hart Lane, Sigurdsson’s stock has never been this high before and that’s reflected in the rumoured amount that the Toffees are willing to pay.

The inventive Icelander predominantly did most of his goal-scoring damage as a number 10 for the Swans last season, but he’s also comfortable playing off the left of a front three.

Koeman has obviously identified the need to bolster the goal threat from midfield. Ross Barkley aside, who bagged eight, the contributors to Everton’s Premier League tally from the others regularly given supporting roles to main striker Romelu Lukaku were topped by Aaron Lennon’s five.

With the very real threat of Lukaku being lured to Chelsea casting a shadow over Goodison as well, procuring Sigurdsson’s services makes plenty of sense.

The six-time Icelandic footballer of the year created 57 chances for teammates in the league last season, delivering three direct assists.

It’s hardly surprising that the Swans will hold out for a large fee for the 26-year-old.

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Give Christian a sport with anything remotely spherical in it and he’ll happily while away the hours watching it on the box. However, he’d much prefer writing about, playing or betting on golf, football, cricket, tennis, snooker.... you get the picture.